Abstract
This paper makes a philosophical and ontological contribution to tourism knowledge. It discusses emergent perspectives and paradigms, identifies major omissions in tourism knowledge and challenges its dominant assumptions, reviewing the imperatives for a regime change in the field. The paper argues that the new hopeful tourism perspective which combines co-transformative learning and action offers a distinctive approach to tourism study. It defines the characteristics of this values-led humanist perspective and presents a reflexive accounting of its evolution. It concludes with a three part agenda for tourism educators and researchers concerned to embrace co-transformative learning, which responds to the challenges of creating just and sustainable tourism worlds.